In Istanbul you have warned me to stay in Eastern Turkey - too dangerous, because too many terrorists down. In eastern Turkey, I was discouraged by Iran - many religious extremists, poor country. In Iran, people have beaten up his hands over his head when I said that I want to travel to Pakistan. In Germany, I was advised in advance of travel in different combinations of one or another area.
did I last a week in Pakistan spent. The floods and the unpredictable security situation (on the Iran-Pakistan border and in the Indus) have let me finally get it on the plane. This decision was a difficult birth, I would still break my dream of a land route to India.
from the Iranian city of Bander Abbas I fly in just half an hour, the Persian Gulf in a small Russian machine and do includes three days in Dubai. After a month in Iran (against Iraq and eastern Turkey), the ultra-modern skyscrapers, shopping malls, women without a headscarf and flashy cars a culture shock for me. When is the Wall Street since the financial crisis of the decline of capitalism, he is experiencing its revival in Dubai. Without doubt the Skyscraperurwald is impressive, but ultimately me this shiny facade comes after the previous weeks before the very artificial and superficial.
waiting Fortunately, the flight to Lahore, the capital of Punjab and the cultural heart of Pakistan on the border with India.
a week I spend in the busy metropolis. Many things remind me already there in India (after all, were India and Pakistan 63 years ago to one and the same country) and my inner glow can travel fever thermometer. The streets of Lahore be driven not only by all kinds of vehicles (from large and small buses, on trucks, cars, motor rickshaws, bicycles and scooters up to Roll boards) but are also a huge Freichlichtzoo. Horses, donkeys, cows, dogs, cats and chickens complete the man-made chaos. The markets are fantastic colorful, crowded and diverse. 
Pakistan (and virtually no one knows) a great tourism potential, thanks to Lahore, with its many historical monuments and other cultural gems and quaint, practically untapped in the mountain regions Nodern. But the Pakistanis do not deny that it is about their country at the moment is not good. Many see 11 September as the turning point, since nothing was the same again. The country became the scene of the dubious battle against terrorism. In recent years, accumulated the Taliban attacks, but NATO is not necessarily less careless with the lives of civilians at (villages are bombed, etc.). The rejection of the U.S. action in Pakistan's population is large, more and more Americans are perceived in Pakistan as self-serving imperialists.
No Pakistanis is also good to talk to his government. My friend Usman, appeals to me on the first day on the street, said: "No president has been felt even a little this country undertakes." Corruption is part of the game, military coups, a recurring motif, and as the verhehrenden floods this year have shaken the country, The President went on a trip abroad. Unlike in Iran, many Pakistanis have given the continuing mismanagement of their country long since resigned.
is by the roadside in busy places and the police presence is particularly high. My rickshaw is repeatedly stopped by soldiers and one day I forget my passport.
a German, dressed in a Pakistani shalwar kameez "(see photo), without a passport and without Pakistani money (I just wanted to go to exchange). It will take me to the police station, but I can the problem with a 20 € -release form. Later I learn that this is about four times its daily earnings (!). Lahore is known for his many Sufischreine. I attend most of these shrines that are visited by masses especially in the evening and I have to undergo three times a body check. Everywhere there are policemen with machine guns. Later I learn from my couchsurfing host, why: Before the shrine, it has a few weeks ago with a stop where dozens dead. The explosion occurred in a Thursday night, holy night of the Sufis (Islamic mystics), so many deaths were guaranteed. When I Usman in the Thursday night ride through a busy street, I feel uneasy. A short time later, there is a message from an attack in a shrine in Karachi.
And yet there is complete normalcy in Lahore, everyday is his usual lines. On time every day cut 14 to 16 and from 20 to 22 clock, the current (Usman insists that I am in Germany from this "human rights violation" reports). The blackout is probably the only predictable in Pakistan.
But ultimately, the probability , can be taken from one of these lunatics in an attack is vanishingly small. vigilance and avoiding crowded places at certain times, a large part of reducing the danger. That's what I think myself and feel a whole. The life of Lahoris is certainly not to the Upside down. There is here the best will in no state of emergency and the media image of the "most dangerous Country in the world "is so distorted as most of what we learn about the countries outside of Turkey.
On the last day in Pakistan I watch the ceremony at the only border crossing übertretbaren between Pakistan and India, the Wagah border on. Every day before sunset where there is a bizarre and impressive military parade. Both the Pakistani and the Indian side (I'm watching the show for two days by both sides) it is the same ritual, impressively captured in this YouTube video:
How in a football game cheer the masses to their soldiers. The enthusiasm and Pride is similar on both sides, I go along as a die-hard Indian fans on the Indian side even more. There, young women dance to Bollywood hits, kids run with the flag through the crowd and all shout "Long live India!".
noon on 10/10/2010 I cross over to walk the border between the two arch-enemies, known as the "Berlin Wall of Asia." It is an indescribable feeling, only with a backpack, the few steps from Pakistan back to India Gate and down one after the Pakistani and Indian border to greet the soldier. come after exactly 15 weeks to travel to eight countries, I in India, where I will spend the next few months.
On 1 November I start my project work in Varanasi on the Ganges. I'm looking forward to settle down, my Hindi classes and rich new experiences ...
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